Chapter One

It’s time, Jewell.”

Slowly turning her head, no color left in her face, Jewell stood with as much grace as possible. The joke of a dress barely covered any of her skin, and it was so tight that what it did hide was hardly hidden at all. But that didn’t matter, did it? All the men sitting out there — waiting, lusting, wanting — preferred it that way.

She was for sale to the highest bidder. And they would do whatever they chose with her. But so what? She was now just an empty shell; all real emotion had been sucked from her. Or at least she hoped it had been.

“You look good. I have no doubt you’ll bring in the highest price of the night,” Ms. Beaumont told her.

Though the two women had come to an understanding, even to a friendship of sorts over the last three months, Jewell couldn’t think of her as a friend, couldn’t think she had any friends. To do what she needed to do in order to survive, she had to stand alone.

So Jewell ignored the woman as she stepped in front of the mirror to look at herself. What she saw was a stranger looking back at her. Her long dark hair had been stripped of its natural color; shimmering platinum tresses now cascaded down her back. This had been her choice, as she’d wanted to erase who she used to be. Expertly applied makeup concealed the circles beneath her eyes, and bright red lipstick matched her low-cut dress to perfection.

Her legs were on full display. Ms. Beaumont, or McKenzie, as she sometimes asked to be called, said they were most definitely her best feature — okay, her legs and her back, which was also exposed in all its glory. Jewell refused to meet her employer’s gaze in the mirror. If she made eye contact with a single person, she was afraid she would melt down.

Three months she’d been back at Relinquish Control. Three long months. She had lost the case for adopting her brother, and now she was fighting just to get back visitation rights. Even if it wasn’t her fault, she’d broken a promise she’d made to the boy. She’d told him she’d be there every weekend, and it had been months since she’d been able to talk to him. He had to believe that she’d abandoned him.

Never.

She was doing all of this for him. If she could save enough money, she’d be able to get him somehow, and the two of them would run away together. The only thing in her life that mattered was little Justin.

“Jewell, it’s still not too late to back out of this,” Ms. Beaumont said, and her words nearly made Jewell fall apart.

“You know this has to be done,” Jewell told her, still refusing to meet her eyes.

“There are other ways.”

“None of those ways have worked.”

Ms. Beaumont, as Jewell always thought of her, turned away. Jewell was grateful for that.

Jewell couldn’t focus on anything or anyone other than herself. If she focused on anything other than what was in store for her, she would never get through this auction. She hadn’t been with any other man before or since Blake Knight. She hadn’t wanted to be with anyone else.

She’d tried to block Blake from her mind, but that was an impossibility. Though she’d been with him for only six days, and she hadn’t seen him in three months, their relationship had been a perfect storm, constantly leaving her thrashing around in the wind. The fatal moment for her came when he had dropped her back off at the doors to Relinquish Control without even a thought of looking backward.

As soon as she’d decided to work for an escort agency, Jewell had known that her world would never be the same again, but she had suppressed her feelings. Someone mattered more than she did. She would still do anything and everything to have her little brother living with her. The poor boy had to be so frightened right now.

And this was the reason she was now up for auction. Relinquish Control did this once a year, took the girls who were either ready for one last gig or who were interested in doing something a bit more exciting, and paraded them in front of a room full of men, hungry men who were told there were no rules. The clients got to do whatever they wanted with the women they bid the highest price on. Instead of paying for a night or a week, their bid gave them an escort for a full thirty days.

Ms. Beaumont was going to give Jewell half of the proceeds from this night. Half! And from what the other women had said, an escort could sometimes come away with sixty thousand dollars and a treasure trove of jewelry, clothing and other gifts. Surely if she had at least that much in her bank account, she’d have the power to get her brother back, no matter where he’d been placed.

The money she had made from her first encounter with Blake Knight had all gone to an attorney who had done nothing for her and Justin. She had made a disastrous choice when she paid him to represent her. She wouldn’t choose so foolishly again, though she still felt lost when she considered how to move forward.

“If you won’t change your mind, then it’s time,” Ms. Beaumont said quietly.

“Let’s go.” Jewell didn’t even recognize her own voice — it was so listless, so monotonic.

She turned from the mirror and followed Ms. Beaumont to the room they’d set up as a theater for the event. The audience section was dimly lit, making it difficult for the escorts to see the faces of the men bidding on them, but the lights on the stage shone brightly, ensuring that the bidders didn’t miss a single inch of skin. After all, they were there to secure themselves a high-priced whore.

A whore is what they would get.

“Good evening, gentlemen. I am so pleased you have made your way here this evening. All of you have used our services before and know that we guarantee your satisfaction. These women are here for you, and they will love every minute of the time they spend in your … arms.” If McKenzie winced slightly when she said that, no one in the audience noticed. “Our … training program is intensive, as you know, and quite costly, and this evening’s proceedings allow us to give you only the best. For those who haven’t attended one of our auctions before, let me explain how tonight will work.”

Ms. Beaumont paused and looked out across the room. The pause heightened the men’s anticipation, and they sat there like panting dogs. Jewell took in a deep breath. Some of the girls were actually excited, almost giggly about this event, though they had been trained to hide most of what they felt. Each woman was counting up the big bucks she would earn. What did they have to lose? This one job could set them up for an entire year if they were careful with their money.

Jewell only hoped the man who picked her wasn’t too sadistic.

She would be sold tonight. And she had endured some rough nights when she’d been living — not working — on the streets of Seattle, so she could certainly brave a month with a stranger. She just had to keep reminding herself why she was doing it — it was all for Justin.

“You will bid on the girls by holding up your sign,” Ms. Beaumont said. “Each bid goes up by increments of five thousand dollars.”

The room quieted down as the first girl was brought onstage and made to twist and turn, to show off her assets. She smiled as she tugged on the material of her dress, letting her nipples show. That didn’t count as a wardrobe malfunction in this venue. An appreciative murmur rose from the audience, and her price climbed.

Jewell sat with the others off to the side of the stage, where they could see the proceedings, but where the audience couldn’t see them. Ms. Beaumont wanted to keep the men waiting, wondering, salivating.

The parading and the bidding and the winning seemed to go on and on, and Jewell sat stone-still while she waited for her name to be called. She refused to cave in to the tears that were fighting to fall. This wasn’t the time or the place. When she had her brother with her, when she was free of this place, free of this life, that was when she could allow herself a few tears.

And not a moment sooner.

“Our next lady is Jewell, and a real gem she is. She’s our newest member and has only been with one client to date. Her training is complete, and she is willing and able to make all of your deepest desires come true. Let the bidding begin at twenty thousand.”

Signs bobbed in the air after Jewell stood up stiffly and moved onto the stage, turning as she’d been taught, bending down, her body nothing but a tool, an instrument of seduction for profit. The price rose higher and higher, and as no one voiced their bids, she had no clue what type of men were bidding on her, but the higher her price went, the more frightened she became, even though the more money that was laid out to buy her, the more money went into her pocket.

However, men willing to bid such excessive amounts expected much more than plain-vanilla missionary-position sex. Her unshed tears now burned inside her, but she pushed them back, made her mind a blank, and turned off all feeling — especially fear. This was just a month — even if it was a very long month. She would get through it.

“Two hundred fifty thousand dollars.”

The audience’s gasp was loud and clear, and Jewell’s body froze. The man had more than tripled the last bid, and he wasn’t bothering with holding up a sign. He’d spoken aloud. She had no idea who he was — his voice rang no bells — but she was afraid of him. Would she be able to give what a man willing to pay that price would expect from her?

After tonight she might be of no use to her brother, because the man could do whatever he wanted, and with that kind of money involved, she wasn’t sure she’d make it out alive.